Zcooly Time Ranch - Practice the clock and learn how to tell time

Using this app, children can practise with both analogue and digital clocks to tell the time and to calculate new times. Collecting exotic animals on the Time Ranch provides interest and incentive to engage with the app and learn the important skill of telling the time.

Teacher Review

Many of the basic skills that children need to learn can only be built up with practice. Classroom question and answer sessions and written exercises both have their part to play, but using an app to add to these provides variety and the opportunity for children to develop their learning without having to rely on an adult's attention.

Time Ranch is an app that dresses up the basic practice of learning to tell the time in game-like graphics. In doing so it provides a visual incentive to play the app. Children are not going to be convinced that this is a game in the truest entertainment sense, but using it will be a more attractive proposition than many other ways of learning to tell the time.

The app introduces children to their tasks by explaining that they are helping out on the ranch. It is a distinctly unusual ranch in that it keeps creatures ranging from snails to dinosaurs, as well as the more conventional animals. This variety of animals is locked away at first and children earn the chance to fill their fields with lions and dinosaurs by completing their daily tasks.

The app covers ten weeks and each day of the week has five tasks to complete. The tasks involve setting clocks, both analogue and digital, to the time spoken by the app's farmer character. These start as straightforward tasks to set the clock to a specific hour and then advance to needing a higher-level of understanding, such as advancing the clock on by a certain time or converting from digital to analogue. These many levels grant the app variation and longevity.

If the player makes three mistakes, their progress through the day is removed and they start again on that day. The setback is only small and so provides a penalty, and hence encourages careful thought, but not a demoralising punishment.

The clocks are very easy to interact with. Unlike some analogue clock apps which allow both hands to be moved, this app only allows the minute hand to be dragged. This gives a more realistic experience of clocks as the passage of time is reflected more accurately. The digital clock is set by dragging either the minute or the hour digits. The ranch itself is lit as either nighttime or daytime and in doing so provides a visual cue to the use of am and pm times - a nice touch.

For questions where the answer is based on an initial time, such as set the clock twenty minutes ahead, the original time is shown on a smaller analogue clock in the corner. Strangely, this has thick rectangular hands that would have been better tapered to a point as is more common and is used on the large clock set by the player. It is only a small point, but consistency when building basic skills is an important consideration.

For teachers who want to use the app to quickly assess or teach children, there is a useful practice section. Here the type of questions and their difficulty can be set. For example, if a child is unsure about advancing the time, then teachers can set the app to this mode and, either alone or with support, the child can undertake some targetted practice.

Learning to tell the time is a process that needs time to develop and to be revisited to embed the skill. Having a good variety of apps to do this makes the jobs of teachers and parents easier and children's learning experience more fun. Time Ranch deserves its place within your app collection.

Screenshots

From the Developer

Learn to tell the time in no time, with Zcooly Time Ranch. Developed by experienced teachers and award winning designers, Time Ranch offers a world of stunning 3D graphics and lovable characters. Watch how learning becomes a treat!

Gunnart the farmer needs help to care for his animals. Assist him by feeding his strange and exotic animals at the correct time, and they will reward you for your efforts. Use the in-game currency to get new and exciting animals and decorate their pens while you learn to tell the time. *There are no in-app-purchases.

NOTE:
* Recommended for iPad2, iPhone4 and later versions.
* If you experience any problems with the app’s performance, try to restart it. If the problem persists, please do not hesitate to contact us!

About Zcooly
Zcooly’s games are great tools for building the skills that are necessary for pre- and elementary school requirements. Designed to work as an addition to the children’s ordinary curriculum, Zcooly helps children to keep up with the schoolwork and get a head start. Thousands of Swedish school classes and children are currently using our games on a daily basis.